EARLY NOVEMBER IN CHICAGO

Today I'm at a loss for what to say, because early November has proven itself to be such a whirlwind. Between The Cubs winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years and Donald Trump winning the Electoral vote lining himself up to be the next president of this (already great) country, there have been some really high highs, and some really low and scary lows. I think if anything, I'm inspired to work harder to be nicer and more compassionate and to look to do more good in the world. Who's with me? 

Time To Move On

The first of many coming transitions in the next half year of my life:

Yesterday, I moved out of my New York City apartment and back to Westchester. This transition feels a little more bitter than sweet, but with leaving for the Appalachian Trail in less than fifty days (and my yearlong lease up) it only makes sense.

That being said, I'm really really going to miss that place and all the memories made there. From nights watching The Bachelor and KUWTK and drinking cosmos with Amie DB, to fairly regular Pasta Fridays with friends who were able to drop by, to walking to work through Central Park, to hanging out on the fire escape during hot summer days, to all the cool restaurant and bars in the area. My year living in New York City was awesome, and maybe it'll happen again in my life, but if it doesn't, I'm glad I can say that I ate, I saw, and I conquered. If I'm being honest though, eating was one of the major highlights. ;)

Title Inspo

A Surprise Anniversary

Joe and I celebrated our four year dating anniversary this week! I'm still asking myself how we're already here, but it feels really good! In terms of measuring how long our relationship is, I feel like such a kid. You know how they always get so specific when you ask them how old they are? Just last month I announced to Joe that our relationship was at 47 months. Haha. Thankfully 4 years is pretty even, although I'm not sure what I'll say a month form now.

Last year, we celebrated our anniversary over video chat. We decided to do that this year too... or so Joe thought, but I had some other plans ;). I actually got all spontaneous and bought a plane ticket to Chicago, except instead of telling Joe, I told his friend Max who agreed to help me surprise Joe!

On our anniversary eve, I met Joe and Max out and the surprise went down so perfectly. Joe was more than surprised and speechless for the first few minutes.  Even though I was the surpriser, I was a lot more surprised than I thought I'd be. That surprised feeling felt as if a bottle of champagne had gone straight to my head.

Max quickly departed, and Joe and I spent the next hour laughing about and recovering from the shock of what had just happened. I was only in town for a quick 30 hours, but it was exactly the anniversary I was hoping to have.

On the night of our anniversary, we dressed up all fancy and celebrated with sushi for dinner and then went to the Signature Lounge in the Hancock Tower for drinks and dessert.

Here are a few moments from that night...

So swanky ;). He doesn't always dress up, but after four years, Joe has gotten pretty good at doing it on my behalf and he looks pretty darn good when he does too (or so I think).

It's Joe. Joe Bond. 

From the Signature Lounge. 

Cool as a cucumber (collins, that is!).


More Chicago!


The night was a really good one. Happy fourth anniversary Joe!
As we toasted, here's to four more years!

Inside Out

Last week I saw Inside Out. I don't watch many movies, but wow, it was so good! More than good. Genius, really. No movie has made me think as much as this one did in a long time. Or get so emotional. (Ha!) Seriously though. I probably cried for twenty minutes at the end. I'd definitely recommend it if you don't have anything better going on this week. 

Also, this is really neat: apparently Pixar switched certain details in the movie based on which country it was shown in. For example, instead of the main character Riley being disgusted by broccoli as she is in the U.S. version, in Japan it is green peppers.

( Image via here )

Three

It has been three years since Le Copain and I started dating. Not to be cliché, but where the heck has the time gone?! We never really started officially dating, but decided this was our anniversary. Things for us sort of just fell into place without any overthinking, which is perhaps the best way for things to happen, in my opinion. :)

Conversations at parties turned into conversations as we walked around campus turned into conversations via text message the next morning turned into conversations at dinner the same night with our friends slowly, but surely turned turned into dating, and dating for almost two years turned into deciding last year that October 14th is our anniversary because this is the date Le Copain "officially" asked me out on the couch in his sophomore year suite even though we had already fit the description of dating for a few weeks.

The last three years have been really great together. Not always easy. But great.
I know people say that relationships are a lot of work, but people also say that you'll never work a day in your life if you're pursuing something you love, which is how I feel about this.

Right now Le Copain and I may be many miles from each other, but later tonight, we're planning to have an anniversary video chat date where we both eat ice cream.

Happy three years, Favoritest! ♥

The Guzzle

The Guzzle is an ice cream parlor/casual eatery/penny candy shop/arcade on Wellesley Island in The Thousand Islands. For me, it has sometthing I appreciate year after year in life as other things change, not to mention a staple of every trip to The Thousand Islands.

When I was younger, I loved going there for an ice cream with my cousins in a flavor of my choosing (where are all my cotton candy flavored ice cream ladies (and guys) at?!).

In middle and high school, it was the thrill going there without any adult supervision and buying a dollar or two worth of penny candy, and proceeding to eat it all with my brother and our cousin.

Today, it's The Guzzle's nostalgia inducing familiarity. It's taking younger cousins to its arcade to show them how Pac Man is played, or introducing Le Copain to its penny candy wonders, or stopping in with three generations of family members to all enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, or buying a root beer float to take down to the docks as a mid-afternoon treat.

The Guzzle has been great over the years, but unfortunately, I'm not just here to rave about it.
Something sad happened a few weeks ago. Late one night, The Guzzle burned to the ground (see here). Fortunately no one was hurt, but the loss of this special place feels particularly sad. Even though the building was insured and there's a recovery fund, the uncertainty of what will become of The Guzzle is unsettling. It would be really hard to go back to The Thousand Islands if The Guzzle were no longer there. I guess all that can be done for now is to hope for the best and remember all the good times spent there over the years...

Circa 1996 

( Moi et Le Frère, incase you couldn't tell! )

J. Crew's Jenna Lyons On Diet And Fitness

It's no secret that I love J. Crew.
My last 5 purchases?

• 3 J. Crew Skirts
• 1 pair of Ray Bans 
• 1 Anthro Dress On second thought it may have been a J. Crew blazer since I ordered them in the same week. 

I stumbled upon this NY Times article interviewing Jenna Lyons (J. Crew's president and executive creative director) yesterday and thought this bit was so funny:



I'm all for exercise and healthy eating and honestly practice both as much as possible, but I loved her honesty too. Right now with knee issues that prevent me from running and a job that takes up my hours between 7:15am through 6:45pm, I have little time to spend doing much other than lifestyle-centric exercises Monday through Friday.

These "exercises" entail walking a few miles in the city (sometimes in heels), taking the stairs instead of the escalator/elevator whenever possible, carrying a bag with way more stuff than I really need in it, and parking far away at the train station (even though that is unavoidable).

Does anyone else have any good "lifestyle" exercises? (I unfortunately don't work a job that allows me to lift heavy sequins ;) )

( Image via here )

Au Revoir, Old Red!

This weekend, I got a new laptop! Big deal? Yes. Huge deal.
After 6.75 years of chugging along, my old Dell laptop clunker that I got for my sixteenth birthday has finally been retired and traded up for a much younger and much hotter Macbook (but not literally hotter because my old laptop had a broken fan...).

Before I mention anything about my new laptop, let's quickly talk about my old laptop because I had it for 6.75 years. If it were a person, it would be going into first grade! Old Red (I never called it that, but it is old and it is red) was a good laptop. It was my first non-shared laptop and it carried me through half of high school, all of college, and contained large portions of my life over those years.

Old red took its beatings over the years. I never cracked the screen or spilled coffee on it, it never caught on fire or started smoking (those maladies have all happened to different friends/family members), however, Old Red had missing keys, hadn't held longer than a two hour charge in four years/any charge in more than two years, and suffered three disabling viruses. Long story short... it was old and rundown but powered through to the very end.

Now as I put Old Red to rest, I'm happy to finally have a highly functioning computer that can watch movies or write blog entries or have ten windows open without it crashing. I think that's all anyone ever wants in a laptop, so here's to what could be 6.75 years with this new laptop. ❤

And out of curiosity...

How long have you had your laptop?

Less than 1 year

1 - 2 years

3 - 4 years

5 - 6 years

6+ years

Poll Maker

Thoughts On This Week

This week. Gosh. Not an easy one, that's for sure.It was my last week home before vacation and starting work. Whoa. My family also hosted two 9 year old girls from this program from Sunday through Thursday. It was definitely an experience. I'm so glad my family was able to host them, but I was so so done by the end of the week. The week started out pretty well, but the two of them started being pretty horrible to each other by the end of the week and the total lack of of respect they (but one in particular) often showed for each other, my room (...seriously aah), as well as their own belongings was really disheartening. I guess the whole experience put things in a lot of perspective.

As for some other things, I went on two bike rides with the lovely mother, made some patriotic ice pops, ate a ton of patriotic ice pops..., packed, finally got a physical therapy referral, painted my nails, watched Malcolm in the Middle (which is one of my favorites), reached 4096 on 2048, saw two amies + a few amies of amies for dinner tonight, and on Sunday I leave for the 1000 Islands where I get to see a boatload of extended family (including a recently adopted baby cousin) and Le Copain, whom I haven't seen in over a month! Hoping you all had nice Independence Days! xo

PS: The photo above is actually one I took way back in 2008 I think (!)

Work B**ch

As of this past Friday, this b**ch (that's b**ch as in beach, birch, or bench (... no it's not)) has a job and will be working in NYC sometime in the near future! I'm not sure when I start, but this work search thing has honestly such a long and painful process. I'm so so grateful and relieved that something has finally worked out.

( Title via: here )

California Dreamin'

I recently was talking to two of the amis. They'll both be in California next year...one in San Diego, the other in Berkeley. I've never actually been to California or on the other side of The Mississippi for that matter, which is awkward because everyone assumes that since I ski raced in middle/high school and still ski instruct that I've definitely been out west to ski... NOPE! That being said, I think it would be awesome for this young woman to head west for a change. Here's what I'm thinking... a Cornell "reunion" with all the amis in California for a Highway 1 roadtrip this winter!

We would all meet up in San Diego. In San Diego we'd go to the beach and eat some of the most authentic Mexican food on this side of the border (and margaritas... definitely can't forget about those!). We would then rent a car to begin our drive up Highway 1 along the very scenic California coastline.

Our first stop would be in L.A. We'd stay there for a day or two to explore Hollywood (maybe see a movie set or two), Beverly Hills, maybe go to Disney Land, and enjoy America's second largest (sprawl-iest, and most Kardashian-filled) city.

We'd then make our way up to the San Francisco/Berkeley area all the way up Highway 1 stopping whenever something cool came up whether that be cool views, beaches, random quirky tourists destinations, surfer gangs, interesting restaurants, whatever really... When in California!

Then we'd arrive in San Francisco. We'd see the Golden Gate Bridge, take a cable car, maybe visit the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory, and one of the days we would head to Sonoma/Napa for some wine country touring/tasting!

Then after all is said and done, we would all go back to our own corners of the U.S. and dream of our next trip together.

Images via:  San Diego, Los Angeles, Highway 1, San Francisco, Plane
Title via: Song 

Well Wishes

The (ravishing) guy next to me (aka: Le Copain) has his very last med school interview today! Wishing him lots of luck! (If anyone else wants to do the same, it would be very much appreciated!)
xo

Graduation Part 3 :: Commencement (Aka: That Time I Graduated From Cornell!)

On Sunday May 25th, 2014, I graduated from Cornell University!!!
I still can't believe I was lucky enough to go to Cornell. Cornell has perhaps been the best chapter of my life yet. I got to take so many interesting classes, go on so many adventures, and most importantly, met some friends who pretty much became family.

Commencement was pretty incredible. Cornell is so huge that it took over an hour to get everyone (5000+ people) lined up and into the stadium where graduation took place. It's hard to believe so many people go to Cornell, especially when it is such a huge campus and people stay cooped up inside during the many cold months of the school year. Commencement itself was pretty brief since Convocation was the day before, but it was special to be in the same place with all those graduating with the Class of 2014 and everyone's families for that brief moment in time.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. Lots of pictures. Some receptions. A lovely dinner out with the extended family/Le Copain. An early bedtime to signify my entry into the post-college world.

Thanks for three great ones, Cornell!

( See Part 1, Part 2 )

Epiphanies

A few nights ago, I stayed up way too late after spending almost every hour of the day studying for finals. I was coming down with yet another cold (probably the seventh or eighth this semester), and as I tried to fall asleep, I ran into the unusual circumstance of not being able to fall asleep, and then I ran into the even more unusual circumstance of incessant worst-case scenario worrying.

As I lay in bed, I actually started worrying about the number of colds I've had this semester. And then I thought back to my iron blood test that got botched this past summer (aka: they did the test without measuring for iron...derp) that I never went in to get re-done after they mentioned my red blood cell count was low (an indicator for low iron (among other things)). Clearly I have cancer, I thought.

Soon WebMD was up on my phone and then the Mayo Clinic website and then a bunch of other health websites too.

15 Signs of Cancer Women Ignore

Could It Be More Than A Cold?

None of my symptoms matched, but that doesn't not mean I'm dying, I thought (even if sometimes I exercise too much or eat too much sugar or don't drink enough water or drink too much alcohol or share too many foods/drinks with others or don't get enough sleep or stress out too much). 11:30 turned into midnight and midnight turned into 1:30, and 1:30 turned into I may never live to be married or have kids and that turned into I literally don't have a future because I'll probably be dead in a year or two.

I finally fell asleep at two.

I woke up the next morning at seven for an exam and felt quite a bit sicker than I did the night before, but my head actually felt cleared and I had the answers I was looking for for the longest while. Low and behold, I do have a future. Lately it hasn't seemed like that as I plan leave Cornell after graduation only to move back home after looking for a job for the past three months. It is really hard to not feel like I've failed, but I'm 22 years old and I still have time. I still have a future.

The best is yet to come and perhaps it's okay that I don't really know what that is yet.

(Image via here)